"California" Pickups

[Rocky]

Does anybody (DrumBob?) know who made these? Could it have been a 'backdoor' for Duncan after he signed an exclusive OEM deal with Kramer (a la Park/Marshall)?

 

[matsickma]

I was under the impression that California pickups were a Japanese designed and build pickup.

 

[Rocky]

I was under the impression that California pickups were a Japanese designed and build pickup.

My inference was that the two biggest aftermarket pickups were in CA (Duncan) or NYC (DiMarzio).

 

[SFIV1967]

I was under the impression that California pickups were a Japanese designed and build pickup.

Yes, as written here:

Need help with 1986 SF-4

Hey guys! A friend of mine from Ukraine is selling a 1986 Starfire IV and he's interested what kind of pickups it is equipped with. The seller assured him that those are XR-7 which I suppose might be true for models of that time. Anyway on the back of the pickups there is "California pick-up"...

letstalkguild.com

or here:

Info for california pickups?

Hello. I was wondering if anyone has any information on California humbuckers from around 1984 as I just fell into a guitar for free made from guild parts. The guitar sounds great after a setup but I cannot find any information anywhere about them. Any type of information would be greatly...

letstalkguild.com

And as also mentioned by Hans, in 1984 and 1985 Guild marketing called the California pickups "Pacific Pickups":




Only afterwards they changed the marketing name of them:


Ralf

 

[Rocky]

Pacific seems more accurate, California seems a little misleading, unless they were referring to port of entry, lol.

 

[SFIV1967]

Pacific seems more accurate, California seems a little misleading, unless they were referring to port of entry, lol.

The question is also if that was purely a phantasy name or if there was really a Japanese company with that name "California Pick-Up. Co.".



Ralf

 

[Rocky]

The question is also if that was purely a phantasy name or if there was really a Japanese company with that name "California Pick-Up. Co.".



Ralf

I suspect if it was more than a 'dba' they would have invested more in branding than a rubber stamp. Stickers, maybe.

 

[SFIV1967]

One possibility of the origin of those pickups could be the former "Nisshin Onpa" division which used the Maxon brandname. In 1981, Fujigen Gakki acquired the entire Pickup Division from Nisshin Onpa.
Since the California pickups are PAF clones (vs. the hot XR-7), Maxon had a pickup called "Dry Z" closely resembling the original PAFs, which was developed by Mr. Jun Takano (Music Land Key, later Kandashokai and K&T) in collaboration with Mr. Ishimaru (head of the pickups division at Nisshin Onpa) for Maxon during the Nisshin Onpa times already. They were used in various versions by Greco for their guitars.
So my guess would be Fujigen Gakki in Matsumoto-shi as the manufacturer of the California pickups at that time.

Ralf

 

[Guildedagain]

I always thought they were Guild made, but a "California" flavor, these are hot pickups right?

Edit, reading above, these are not the hot pickups.

Serious gold dust, SFIV1967.

Domo

 

[GAD]

Pacific seems more accurate, California seems a little misleading, unless they were referring to port of entry, lol.

Marketing being misleading? Nah…

 

[chazmo]

Marketing being misleading? Nah…

Yeah, that never happens.

 

[tonepoet]

I have two S-280 models with the California pickups. I would agree with the "PAF-like" assessment. Nice cleans with no mud in the lower frequencies but they distort very well for big distorted power chords.

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

Nice pair!

 

[mavuser]

I have them in my 1984 SF-4 w/ Guildsby, and they sound great! A little hotter than a typical humbucker. Sounds more like a Dimarzio than a Duncan, to me